George Dawson was an English nonconformist preacher, lecturer and activist. He was an influential voice in the calls for radical political and social reform in Birmingham, a philosophy that became known as the Civic Gospel.
George Dawson (preacher)
An engraving of Dawson, c.1852
The Unitarian Church of the Saviour in Edward Street, Birmingham (1847–1895)
Bust of Dawson in the Library of Birmingham
The Civic Gospel was a philosophy of municipal activism and improvement that emerged in Birmingham, England, in the mid-19th century. Tracing its origins to the teaching of independent nonconformist preacher George Dawson, who declared that "a town is a solemn organism through which shall flow, and in which shall be shaped, all the highest, loftiest and truest ends of man's moral nature", it reached its culmination in the mayoralty of Joseph Chamberlain between 1873 and 1876. After Dawson's death in 1876 it was the Congregationalist pastor R. W. Dale who took on the role as the movement's leading nonconformist spokesman. Other major proponents included the Baptist Charles Vince and the Unitarian H. W. Crosskey.
George Dawson led the call for radical reform of Birmingham from the pulpit
Birmingham in 1886, at the height of its civic renaissance, showing the Council House, Town Hall and Chamberlain Memorial